On Our Own

Stream-of-consciousness tales of a single mom and her two kids as we embark on a life-altering adventure.

29 June 2009

Attack of the Mosquitoes

Since we moved last week from room 211 to 213, our mosquito population has been near zero in our room. Nary a bite for any of us. It's been wonderful.
But outside our room, there are openings in the sidewalk, close 3 feet by 3 feet wide, where the water sits. Why they are uncovered or where that water is going (or is from), I don't know. What I do know is that they've been a breeding ground for mosquitoes and yesterday, was their birth day.
Audrey and I tried to head to the badminton range, but the swarms of them were intense. Little tiny mosquitoes flocking together by the thousands.
I had to teach my evening class, but while I was gone the kids had kept the door open, as we always do. The mosquitoes found it and the room was home to hundreds and hundreds of them. Out came the bug zapper (the electrified tennis racket) and the kids started killing them, then hid under Stuart's mosquito net. When I arrived home after 9, I unwittingly let in hundreds more than had been following me back from class. This time, I went after them. The mattress and floor and bathroom sink and kitchen counter were all littered with their dead bodies.
This morning, there are more dead. Thanks, I'm guessing, to the chill of the air conditioner and lack of food.
To be honest, though. I'm a bit nervous to walk to class. I'll just have to spray myself down first. And hope that the influx dies as quickly as it appeared.

28 June 2009

Free Time

It's all the kids have these days--hours and hours to do as they please. Of course, this often resorts to playing video games, but not always. On Saturday evening, Audrey and I went swimming with some students (past and present) while Stuart rested. He's had a cold for the past few days. I managed to press through the embarrassment of a bathing suit, just for my daughter's sake, and enjoyed swimming in the cool evening for a couple of hours.

The past two days have been only in the low 80s, much cooler than the past week. It began heating (and humidifying) again last night, so I'm expecting another hot one today.

------
For a project that Audrey is working on, we needed plain, unlined paper. There are a few shops at the market that sell school supplies, so we decided to check there first (rather than take the taxi to the supermarket). Sure enough, four stalls in a woman had an open pack of A4 paper. "Bao nhieu?" Out came a string of words and I caught the 10,000VND part, but something came after it. Six.. something, it sounded like. She repeated it and I though perhaps it's 10,000VND for a certain number of pates, though six sounded like a ridiculously low number. Then along comes a Hong Duc student to help me out. Yep, 10,000VND for a certain number of pages: 60, to be exact. So I handed her the money and we waited patiently for her to count out 60 pieces of paper and wrap them in plastic for us.

------
Anyone know how to use fresh turmeric? I couldn't seem to get the shopkeeper to understand that I wanted dried turmeric and she threw the fresh root into my bag. I haven't a clue how to use it and have little luck hunting online.

Really, I must buy some more spices when I get paid and head back to Hanoi.

Labels: ,

25 June 2009

Teaching as a family affair


Thursday was test day for the students. In the big picture, it's actually a test for me--a way to have a control against which they will compare the students at the end of my teaching term. So I found a test in a book that I've yet to see here (in hopes of avoiding them knowing anything about it) and proceeded with listening and speaking tests.

The listening portion started off the test period with two student conversations, followed by two lectures (on human adaptation and Impressionism). They proved to be fairly difficult with a woman speaker whose lilt and breathy voice made her a challenge to understand for many of the students. But they managed to get through it and onto the speaking portion of the test. And that's where my kids came in to make their debuts.

I gave them a list of a half-dozen prompts, ranging from "What's the most difficult sport and why?" to "Summarize how to prepare for a test," to present to each student. Stuart, the technology-savvy teen, used the Memo application on his iPod to record each student's response. Audrey used her iPod to time them (15 seconds to prepare, 45 seconds to speak). Together they managed to record 34 students spoken responses. And from there I am grading each for flow, content, pronunciation and amount of fillers (including those blessed um's and uh's). It was an ingenious method, if I do say so myself and allowed me to stay with the class, working on pronunciation and listening via a game of word Bingo.

I couldn't have done it without the kids. In truth, I'm not sure I could do any of this without them.

Labels: ,

23 June 2009

Weekend in Ha Noi

Saturday morning we headed north with Mr. Bruce, another foreign teacher here at Hong Duc (though not for long). He was going to the airport, and we weren't, so his driver dropped off on the west side of Ha Noi where we grabbed a taxi and headed off to Old Faithful (aka the Hanoi Holidays Hotel). Unfortunately, on arrival we were moved to another hotel. While this may seem odd, it's probably somewhere along the the twelfth or thirteenth time in our numerous stays that it's happened. Usually it's to a soiled and tired old hotel down by St. Joseph's Cathedral, but this time it was just around the block to Charming Hotel. And it was quite charming. The only drawbacks were that the tiny room cost us five dollars more and we couldn't access the fridge because of the extra cot they had to bring in for us. C'est la vie. It was nice and free of mildew stains, plus it had a window. Ah, blessed windows.

Along the drive we passed this woman, which triggered my pineapple craving and as soon as we ran across someone in the Old Quarter selling the darling fruits, I bought one. Plopped on a doorstep, the woman had already cut several pineapples into pieces and bagged them, eagerly waiting for the next customer.
"Pineapple, madam?" she called out as we approached.
"Mm, yes. Bao nhieu?"
"20,000."
I couldn't help but chuckle a little. Only tourists pay more than a dollar for a bit of pineapple.
I smiled, "10,000."
"Ok." And she handed me a bag full of sweet, almost warm from the day's heat, pineapple. Delicious.

Much of the weekend was spent splitting our time walking around the Hoan Kiem area and cooling off indoors. The temperature was butting right up to and then over the century mark, which made lengthy treks impossible. So, instead, we would head out for an hour or two at a time before heading back to our air-conditioned (and television-equipped) hotel room. Despite the heat, it was beautiful. We ventured out for food at Pepperoni's (where the kids got pasta carbonara and meat-lover's pizza. I was again stuck with salad--darned wheat intolerance). We found a new pair of shoes for Stuart and another pair of sandals for me. Audrey never found anything she liked, though. We visited our old haunt: the DVD shop and picked up Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian for less than a dollar. Keith has supplied us with enough movies to last all summer, so we were being extra picky (yes, even at that price.)

The views were stunning around Hoan Kiem. The green of the trees and the water contrasted so beautifully with the blue sky. Keith and Trang invited us to dinner at Ciao Cafe, so we got the ground-level view on the way over and after dinner we headed to another cafe. Perched on the fourth level of the building, it had a wonderful view of Hanoi and, especially, Hoan Kiem lake. It made the heat almost bearable, drinking mixed fruit smoothies and enjoying the vista.

19 June 2009

What's the racket?


Dai came by tonight, around 6pm, to ask if the kids could come out and play badminton with him and some other students. Neither Stuart nor Audrey were super eager to hang out with students eager to practice English, but I pushed them to head out. The weather has been lovely the last couple of days and I know that as summer progresses the evenings, like this, that dip into the 80s will be non-existent. So out they went and soon after I followed to find out exactly where they were. Come to find out there is a badminton court set up in the play yard of the primary school that abuts the university campus. We'd seen it from the top floor of the adjoining building when we were here two years ago, but never knew what it was. Now we do... it's a primary school. I watched them play for a bit, then nabbed the chance to play when I got it.

----
The first week of teaching is finished and I feel like it was pretty successful. I've got some enormous shoes to fill with Mr. Ben leaving, but I will simply do my best.

Labels: ,

17 June 2009

Snack Time


Yesterday evening Audrey and I headed over to the supermarket, while Stuart got some much needed time alone, to do some shopping. We picked up some more water, some plastic cups (after breaking a glass one on the tile floor) and some snack foods: Lemongrass Chicken Potato Chips, Brazil BBQ Potato Chips, milk (the yellow package), some yogurt gellies and some cream wafers. And all together, it cost 38,500VND (just over $2).


For dinner, we headed down the street to the Banh Mi shop we'd visited two years ago with Becky and Ettie. Now that I can't eat wheat I had to go without, but we bought three and the kids could share. For all three, it was 15,000VND (83 cents). We got banh mi trung, a baguette with egg, shredded pork, vegetables and homemade mayo, freshly made by these young girls. The one on the left fried up the egg, while the other sat awkwardly, trying not to stare at the foreigners.

16 June 2009

Eating Goat

It's very similar to beef.

We were invited to Mr. Ben's going away party last night at a restaurant with a name that translates as "The Most Goat." There were, as you could guess, few meat choices. We did manage to get a boiled chicken, but it showed on the table--head and feet, too-- on its belly and chopped into two-inch pieces. The only way to eat it was to pick it up, pull of the skin and tear it from the bone. Not my favorite way to eat any sort of meat.

There was lemongrass goat and a teriyaki-style goat and boiled goat and some soupy thing that might have been brain soup. All meat. All the time. Okay, so there was a small amount of vegetables... corn (delicious, but coated in flour so I couldn't eat it) and greens (fried in oil, garlic and chilis--yum!). We all tried it and even enjoyed it, though the skin parts I could do without. Really, I've just learned to eat around it.

The party was only getting started when we had to leave. Stuart had chowed his food down and was already tired, plus we hadn't sprayed mosquito repellent and we were dining, quite literally, on a lake. One of my students said they take their teachers there for farewell dinners and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will do the same for me. It was a beautiful setting in the midst of the limestone karsts. (Yes, I should have taken photos, but our camera batteries are dead and I can't find the charger--sigh.)

Time to get ready for class...

15 June 2009

Back in Thanh Hoa

My apologies for the delay in posting, it's been a wild few days. We arrived in Hanoi mid-morning on Saturday after 26 hours of travel, including a three-hour layover in San Francisco. My methodology seemed to work, though, and traveling through the night rather than during the day (as we did last time) helped us to get some sleep on the long flight and has definitely helped with the jet lag.

I'd arranged with the hotel to have a driver come pick us up and sure enough, a skinny Vietnamese man stood there with a sign that said "Welcome Teresa." He drove us back to our hotel, but first he had to cross the river and the bridge was packed. Trying to find another way around, he drove all over under the bridge and then back, and around another way, until finally we pulled up to a guard shack. Next to the shack a sign was posted with a NO sign for trucks, animal-pulled carts and cars. But our taxi driver thought he might be able to get around the rules and pulled out a wad of plastic VND bills. He tried several times to get the officer to take the money, arguing back and forth in Vietnamese while I sat in the back hoping they didn't ask me for money. He pulled out a few more bills, but the officer wouldn't budge--the taxi could not use the motorbike entrance or lane. Needless to say,the taxi driver wasn't too happy when he had to get back onto the bridge in the same place that he had escaped from 15 minutes and dozens of cars before.

The long drive was worth it all when we arrived at the hotel and Huyen came hurrying to give us all hugs. She helped us so many times when lived at the hotel two years ago and was always so kind to the kids. She even presented Audrey with some beautiful lotus flowers.

In Hanoi, we met up with Keith and Trang who generously offered to let us use their new widescreen HDTV as a computer monitor. Yes, it's huge, but it works. He also loaned us dozens and dozens of movies which means the kids will have plenty to watch while I'm teaching (as well as working on their projects and playing). They treated us to bun cha at our favorite place just down the street from our hotel. Far too tired to enjoy it, Stuart sat across from Keith lazily eating until he could eat no more. It was less than usual, though, because he was fighting a bit of a stomach issue. Thankfully that dissipated and everyone is feeling pretty well.

On Sunday morning the driver came to pick us up and smiled broadly when he saw us. We packed all of our stuff (4 suitcases, 2 duffle bags, 3 backpacks and a widescreen TV) into the back of his SUV and off we went. He doesn't speak a bit of English, so we just chitchatted with each other and he listened to his music most of the time.

On the way, somewhere before Ninh Binh, police officers in brown uniforms stood at the side of the road waving cars over with white batons. Our car was one of them. As we pulled over, the driver pulled some money out of his wallet and tucked it into the compartment between the front seats, then grabbed some paperwork from the glove box. We stopped and he got out to talk with the stone-faced officer behind the car and I couldn't really see them without turning and making it obvious, so the three of us just sat and waited for him to return. It took several minutes and, I would find out later, 200,000VND for us to have the luxury of driving on.

We had one more stop before getting to Thanh Hoa because after that chaos, Mr. Luc needed a smoke. So we stopped at a bus station where there is a little convenience store-type thing in the front. We waited in the car and he had a cigarette, then came up to the car to gesture that he wanted to eat. Oh sure, that's fine. But I was a little hungry, too, and the kids... can we join you? We all climbed out and he showed us a ramp and out to an outdoor seating area with dozens of tables in several partitioned areas. But first, he pointed to the bathroom and since I really did have to go, I headed to the dirty little squats, but made sure not to touch anything.

We were given a table and a menu, but my Vietnamese language skills are pretty basic. I recognized Ga xa ot, which is Lemongrass and Chili Chicken and asked for that. Mr. Luc pointed to something with Muc as the meat and none of us knew what that meant. Needless to say, we were a bit taken aback when a plate of baby octopus tentacles showed up on the table, suckers and all. We managed to all take a bite, some of us took a few (not Audrey--no surprise).

Around 2pm, we finally arrived in Thanh Hoa getting a different room on the same floor of the building we lived in before. It's a bit nicer and has been painted more recently than our last room had. The kitchen is lovely in comparison to what we had before with real counter (granite, of course) and a tiny kitchen sink. There is a drainer/shelves above the sink rather than the plastic shelves on the floor The bathroom was fairly clean and all in all much nicer than the other room. Unfortunately at this point, we only have one room, but perhaps we can get that changed. And there is no device to hang up the second bed's mosquito net. So we've been taping it to the wall which only works for about half the night. Frustrating and tends to make me a bit claustrophobic. But for right now, it works.

11 June 2009

This is the day...

Marked on my calendar for less than two months, the date still seemed so far in the future, but now it's here. I'd like to say that I'm simply putting the finishing touches on the house before we leave, just packing up those few last things. What I am really doing is rushing madly around the rooms, trying to get it to a point that I won't be ashamed to leave. And won't be so depressed when we return.

Our plane leaves this evening, after I've spent a day at work cleaning and organizing classrooms. But for this morning, I've got another 2.5 hours to get things done myself. Then I'll hand it over to the kids and pray that today will finally be the day they pack their carry-on bags and that they can manage to get some vacuuming done.

I'll post when we're safe and secure on the other side of the globe.

10 June 2009

Reading in Public

Saturday morning I flew down to Sacramento and took a mini-vacation with my aunt, visiting family that day and spending the next day in San Francisco. Sunday evening we joined up with Reenita Malhotra and Samantha Ducloux Waltz at the Urban Tavern. After dinner, we headed up to Cafe Royale to read our pieces from "Ask Me About My Divorce." It was a great experience and I was so grateful to have my Aunt Diana along for the ride (quite literally!).

----
Bags are mostly packed. Tomorrow is the last day of school and Thursday is the last day of work. My to-do list is now being kept on my left hand and wrist so that I don't lose it. Still a bunch of little errands to run and far too much cleaning to do, but I've finally finished my homework (before 1 a.m. even). Bit by bit, we'll get it done. Either way, we're leaving in 40 hours.

08 June 2009

three days left

I can see how people lose their minds sometimes. If I weren't so tired...

05 June 2009

Martyrdom

My ex-husband used to accuse me of being a martyr and I consistently rebuked the term: I don't purposefully look for suffering . But this morning my mother, after listening to me whine about the chaos of these last few days, asked me, "Why do you do this to yourself?" and I didn't really have an answer. Some of it is inescapable. I have two papers for my online ED291 class due today, an earlier due date than I had expected after several days of no internet at home. My friend is hosting a farewell bbq tonight. My daughter wants to visit her friend's horseback riding class one last time. Both kids have to go to my parents' home for the night. Early tomorrow morning I have to catch a bus to the airport for a flight to Sacramento (via Seattle). The only thing I can really get out of is the riding class, but I feel like the loving mom, the good mom is the one who goes out of her way to make her children happy. I need to do it.

I have given up on the hope of getting the painting in the living room finished and I probably won't get around to making that other dress, but I have some clothing alterations that I promised for other people. I've got re-writes and critiques for my WR290 class to finish. I have to find another piece of luggage to pack all these clothes for the orphans in. I have to scrub the bathroom and mop the floor. Plus work everyday and have dinner with family, then friends, then housemates.

The schedule is so full, it's overflowing the pages of my planner onto sticky notes. And then the next week...it's empty. This is just the chaos before the calm. I think I'll make it through okay and with passing (if not stellar) grades. I'll finish my classes and I'll say goodbye to friends. And maybe someday I won't feel so much like a mouse on a wheel, always chasing after something I can't quite see.

Labels: ,

21 May 2009

Thanks!

We're lucky enough to have received a ton of support from friends and strangers alike over the past few weeks and I'm incredibly grateful. And in the wave of support, we've been requested to help out in various ways. I'm happy to do so. We'll be bringing photos of adopted children back to the orphanages that cared for them. Some purchases are being sent to us to transport to Hanoi. Our bags are already packed with clothes for the kids in Tam Ky.

I feel honored and appreciative to be able to help people. Once we get there we'll find some ways to continue helping, I hope. Amid the adventures of just getting by.

---
Visa applications arrived in San Francisco and I'm hoping they'll be back home in a few days. It's the last step.

--UPDATE--
Two hours later the visas showed up. I mailed the apps Monday and got them back four days later. Not bad at all. We are ready to go!

Labels: ,

17 May 2009

26 Days

That's all we've got here before we split. Stuart mentioned how last time it was so much longer before departure that we actually celebrated our "100 days before we leave" day. This time we won't have to wait even half that long.

Things are progressing nicely, though. I bought tickets to Vietnam (fly out June 11). Then tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok (fly out September 20). I'll buy tickets home while I am there. I finished some updates on the Vietnam With Kids website and plan to do more over the next couple of weeks. I finally arranged all the paperwork, photos, and signatures for our visas and will mail those out tomorrow. That's the only real stumbling block, but we'll keep our fingers crossed that everything works out right (and quickly!).

We're gathering things together to take back to the orphans in Tam Ky (as well as a couple other people living in VN) and selling off a little bit of our stuff, packing away other stuff and just progressing nicely.

Now if I could just fit in more time to work on the travel memoir for our last trip, I'd be super happy.

07 May 2009

Progress

We've got our one-way tickets again (someday I'll be able to afford round-trip, but probably after the kids are grown!) and we officially leave at 7:50pm after a full day of work on June 11.

Today we are off to get our new visa pics and send off the applications asap. There are some differences of opinion between what IIG is telling me to send and what the Embassy is telling me is the cost of the visas. Like more than a hundred dollars difference, but I think that stems from 1-month vs. 6-month. There's no way I'm getting a one-month-at-a-time visa. Yuck.

I also got the contract, signed, scanned and the original packed into our luggage. Things are coming along.